Effective whistle-blowing critical to fight against corruption – EFCC
Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ola Olukoyede, says the war against corruption cannot be won through lip service, emotional outbursts or mere mob campaigns.
Olukoyede stated this on Thursday on the occasion of 2024 African Anti-corruption Day in Kaduna.
He said the world over, the issue of corruption has been a bane to both local and global development.
“There is a need for commitment, passion, consistency and credibility of intelligence. Every whistle blown must point towards truth and evidential proofs. There is punishment for false claims and misleading intelligence,” he warned.
According to him, there can be no accurate statistical or quantitative evaluation of the havoc corruption is wreaking on genuine efforts at development because of its pervasive and recurring nature.
“Aside terrorism, corruption ranks as the next deadliest affliction of humanity in every region of the world,” he added.
“In view of the danger and threat to our existence which corruption represents, it is imperative that individuals, communities, corporate bodies and indeed the whole world join hands together to tackle it frontally. One way of doing this is through the whistle-blowing initiative.”
“The Whistle-Blowing Policy in Nigeria, was launched on December 21, 2016 by the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Finance as an anti-corruption programme that encourages people to voluntarily disclose information about fraud, bribery, looted government funds, financial misconduct, abuse or embezzlement of government assets and any other form of corruption or theft,” he said.
